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Australian road race Championships - team tension, solo tactics and deserving winners
We always knew it was going to be hot. Race director, John Craven showed me the monitor as we stood on the start line at 1.30pm - it read 44 degrees.
We also knew there were many women with teams and contingencies, and very capable climbers represented by all states:
Alexis Rhodes (SA) had not finished the TT due to mechanical difficulties and was $100 poorer for throwing her bike (I'm still not sure if it was as good as Bjarne Riis' effort in the 1997 TdF - very spectacular for a man with skinny arms), but she had good strength from fellow Adelaide riders, Amber Halliday (winner of the TT 3 days earlier), Rachel Neylan, Tiffany Cromwell and Ange McClure.
Vicki Whitelaw (ACT) was beginning the season with a new squad, Lotto Belisol Ladies Team, and had the capital territory riders to work for her. With Josie Tomic, Peta Mullens and Rochelle Gilmore - all part of the Honda Dream team that worked superbly to get victory for Gilmore in the 2010 Bay Crits, they were a formidable group.
Ruth Corset (QLD) was motivated, perfectly suited to the course and had an exceptional lieutenant in Emma Mackie (QLD). Both will ride for the US pro team Tibco in 2010, with recently retired Emma Rickards as new Director Sportif of the UCI team. The Queenslanders are always well represented and had good quality support in Lou Kerr and Zoe Appel.
The AIS women's team had Shara Gillow (QLD) as their talented climber and newly crowned Australian Criterium Champion, Carly Light as dual captains. Comeback kid Amanda Spratt (who has seen more of the AIS rehab centre in the past 18months tha anyone would wish on their worst enemy!), Lauren Kitchen and Carlee Taylor were their mighty domestiques.
Local Melbourne rider and solid climber Jo Hogan, riding for the strong domestic team of Prime Estate, had taken a few months off work to prepare for this race. She had Rebecca Locke, Irene Digenis and Nicole Whitburn to back her up. And multiple junior world track champion, Megan Dunn (NSW), was out to prove her capabilities on the road.
There were also dozens of individual riders, hoping to hang on for as long as they could or capitalise on the unfolding of the race....
And then there was me.
I had the best team off the road (I say modestly) with Paul as mechanic, soigneur and general logistics man, and Donna helping me plan an assault with multiple options depending on who did what.
I pre-cooled with an ice vest, drank slushees made of sports drink, kept applying ice cold towels and readied myself for the 10 x 10.2km laps of the hilly Buninyong circuit. My secret plan was to sit tight, be patient, then attack the bejesus out of whomever was left with 2 laps to go. Easy peasy.
Thanks to the terrific pre-cooling, and the valiant efforts of Paul and Jen in the feed zone, I managed 2 bidons of ice cold water on every lap and poured them over me like I was Floyd Landis trying to dilute suspicious hormones. Only without the suspicious hormones. And the Mennonite family. And the patchy ginger beard.
Anyway, suffice to say, I actually felt comfortable.
Four, five, six, seven laps in and the peloton got smaller and smaller. Judith Arndt (Germany) had launched an early solo attack and was easily picking up sprint and KOM points, (clearly Team High Road aren't paying the salary they used to and she needs some AUD to pay the bills...) and on lap 7, Rachel Neylan had started to bridge across to the triple Olympian, World Champion and multiple world cup winner Arndt.
Still the group remained compact and tense, watching each other, conserving what energy we had left. Until lap 9, when Emma Mackie launched a mighty attack, forcing others to chase and setting Ruth up for a perfectly timed counter attack as we approached the feedzone.
Ruth took off like the world class 50kg climber that she is, and I was in a shit position, riding last wheel in the now 14-strong remnant of the peloton.
So I chased.
I climbed past Spratty, Alex and Jo. I overtook Amber and Lisa Jacobs. Around Megan Dunn and Peta Mullens, bridging across to the last two in Tiffany and Vicki. As we turned left onto the false flat, I flicked Tiff through and she and Vicki stopped with their games and passed me.
The last 700m of the Mt Buninyong climb is steep, and this was the 9th time up this bastard hill. So I did what I'd done in training, put it in a harder gear and attacked as hard as I could. At the top I looked around and there was no one. But Ruth, Rachel and Arndt were still up the road, so I chased like I was Cancellara (subtracting 10km/h of his speed, thankyou very much) and managed to catch Rachel and Judith 7km later for the penultimate lap.
By now, the daemon Ruth had showed her strength and determination again, and had already pulled away from a tiring Rachel and Arndt. So I rode tempo up the first half of the climb, got another bidon and some moral support from Paul, and braced myself for a whole lotta pain and the last time up the climb for the year.
Attacking 500m before the KOM, I got the gap again. Judith allowed Rachel to chase but she failed to make contact, so Arndt bridged across to follow me onto the flat and 5km descent in to the finish.
This lap, I was desperately chasing Ruth, aiming to hold on to silver and not get caught by Rachel. Arndt sat on my wheel, neither assisting not interfering with my efforts.
As we raeached the finishing straight, I could see Ruth, only 18s in front, and I must admit I had a ridiculous fantasy that I might morph into Cancellara and catch her on the line (ala his performance in the Beijing Olympic RR), but alas, I have neither Fabian's power, nor his supreme flowing hair. Goddammit! If only there was one more lap...... WAIT, AM I INSANE? ONE MORE LAP???
My brain fever over with, and a second silver medal safe in my grasp, I crossed the line, exhausted and elated.
A wonderful woman and great mother and wife had won her first National Road Championship. Ruth Corset, age 32, had achieved her season goal.
Judith Arndt got bronze, the sprint and climbing jerseys and a lot of Mars Bars to attempt to fatten up those greyhound limbs of hers. Rachel finished a valiant 4th, showing that she had truly had an outstanding performance and contributed to the exciting part of the bike race.
Thankyou to Donna Rae-Szalinski, Paul Larkin, Caitlin Jolly, Jono, Darryl, Jen, Martin Barras, Warren McDonald, Dave Martin, Laura Garvican, Tammie Ebert, Oli Brooke-White, Cervélo, SRAM, Scody, Shotz, Selle Smp, Oakley, Zipp, 3T, de Grandi Cycle and Sport, CBD Cycles, St Kilda Cycling Club and the NTID program
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